


as salt, as honey

by betony



Category: Chalice - Robin McKinley
Genre: 3 Sentence Fiction, F/M, Mid-Canon, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-10
Updated: 2013-07-10
Packaged: 2017-12-18 09:01:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/878030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betony/pseuds/betony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mirasol and the Master, discussing fairy tales. Written for the 2013 Three Sentence Ficathon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	as salt, as honey

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ailavyn_Siniyash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailavyn_Siniyash/gifts).



> This was actually written for 3SF for ailavyn_siniyash (from the prompt: _Chalice (Robin McKinley), Mirasol, life without honey_ ), and as I've just stumbled across it again, I've decided to repost it as its own story rather than part of "marginalia." Thanks once more to ailavyn_siniyash for her prompt!

When the Master asks for a story one night soon after the Heir's visit, all that comes to Mirasol's mind, perhaps unfortunately, is the story of the King whose daughter loved him like salt; she is able to keep her voice steady when she describes how the Princess was exiled far away and supplanted by her siblings, strong when she describes how the Princess fell in love and rose to her former station by her own goodness, even somewhat light-hearted when she describes how the old King at last clutched his errant child to his heart and declared her as dear to him as salt to meat. 

At the end of her story, the Master laughs and says into the darkness: "I would not have been salt to him, except perhaps in his wounds; it would have done me no good." 

_No,_ she thinks as he leaves, _you have always been as pure and sweet as honey, and salt I could give up, but never honey._


End file.
